In an election criticized by rights groups, Tunisian President Kais Saied won a second term with more than 90% of the vote, the electoral commission said.
Only two candidates out of more than a dozen other hopefuls were allowed to run against President Saied in Sunday’s election, where only 29% of the more than nine million registered voters participated.
A businessman close to Saied, Ayachi Zammel, received 7% of the vote despite being sentenced to 12 years in prison for perjury – with five days to go before the vote.
There were no campaign meetings or public debates, and almost all the campaign posters on the streets were in support of the president.
Five political parties had urged the people to boycott the election in the belief that it would not be free or fair.
Tunisia was where a wave of pro-democracy protests began in the Arab world in late 2010, ousting dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali early the following year.
The North African country was considered a beacon of democracy in the region.
But since Saied, a former law professor, was elected on a wave of optimism in 2019, the 66-year-old has suspended parliament, rewritten the constitution and concentrated power in his hands.
He was expected to win a second term after authorities arrested and jailed dissidents and potential rivals.
“According to the preliminary results, Saied received 2,438,954 favorable votes,” the country’s Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE) said on Monday evening.
A third candidate, former lawyer Zouhair Maghzaou, received about 2% of the vote.
The final results of the presidential election will be announced early next month, according to the election agency.
Sunday’s vote was Tunisia’s third presidential election since Ben Ali was ousted in 2011 following months of mass protests. He had ruled for more than two decades before fleeing to Saudi Arabia, where he died in 2019.
Rights group Amnesty International has criticized a “worrying decline in fundamental rights” under Saied’s government as discontent grows over the way he is perceived to be governing.
But Saied dismissed the criticism, saying he was fighting “some corrupt” and “traitors”.
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